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By Joginder Tuteja, March 31, 2008 - 11:32 IST
MOVIE DETAILS
Cast: Jimmy Sheirgill, Kay Kay Menon, Sonali Kulkarni, Nandana Sen
Director: Anand L. Rai
Producer: Uday Tiwari
Music: Vinay Tiwari
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
THE FILM
If there would ever be a book written on '10 best ways to kill a movie at the box office', Strangers would certainly be considered in the list of examples. With good actors at disposal, a decent budget, a unique storyline, an unconventional narrative, very good dialogues and a willing director who wanted to go against the stream; the film's presenters could have pitched the movie in the market a bit more intelligently. Instead, they chose to release it sans any fanfare and the treatment befitted that of an abandoned child.
Result? The film got a 'near-dead' release with its director Anand Kumar and actor Jimmy Sheirgill being the only people who seemed to be excited about its fate. The film sadly met with an abysmal box office response and its main hopes lied with the DVD release.
For any thriller to work, it needs to get a terrific kick start to its narrative. Strangers achieves this perfectly well as director Rai gets your attention bang on in the first two sequences itself. Jimmy being escorted by the police and the beginning of a flashback (with Jimmy and Kay Kay meeting in a train) get the stage set for Strangers to emerge as a gripping tale. In fact, what strikes most is director using the medium of cinematography (excellent - by Manoj Shaw), background score (true to the film's thrilling mood - by Vinay Tiwari) and editing (crisp, which restricts 'Strangers' to a 90 minutes watch - by Sanjay Sankla) in these opening sequences which ensures that Strangers turns out to be a quality product.
With an exception of Sonali Kulkarni whose role demands her to ham (she is a woman who has lost her son and is unable to come out of that depression), each of the other three actors give a good account of themselves. While Jimmy comes up with his best act ever, Kay Kay is controlled and impressive as ever. However, the person who surprises most is Nandana Sen who enacts her complex part pretty well. She deserves to be seen more in author backed roles.
With its dialogues switching between Hindi and English, Strangers is an urban tale about two strangers who talk about their experiences and troubles with their respective wives - Nandana Sen and Sonali Kulkarni. No, the film isn't a take on Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train, as has been widely speculated. Yes, the basic germ of the plot is extracted from the Hollywood classic but the sequences which narrate the tale or the numerous twists (mainly in the second half) truly zap a viewer.
Shot entirely in UK, Strangers not just relies on a European setting and ambience but is also shot as a film which could have well been made in Europe. In fact, for a viewer who mainly watches Bollywood flicks, Strangers turns out to be a unique experience. Whether it is tongue in cheek humor (watch out for the way Jimmy interacts with Kay Kay and how pre-climax and climax justify the reason behind that) or the brief interludes on life's philosophy (which makes for an interesting conversation between the two leads) - everything just manages to bring on a different perspective to Strangers.
Of course, the facts as stated above are also the reason why the film is not everyone's cup of tea. Strangers isn't what one may call as a mainstream Bollywood offering but for those who want their brains to be pretty much active, involved and in synch with the director's vision, it would turn out to be an engaging watch!
PACKAGING
The film comes in a standard local plastic case with a decent cover layout. Since the DVD comes on Moser Baer, don't expect any fancy packaging.
DURATION
The film comes in a single DVD pack with the film's duration being 90 minutes.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The DVD doesn't come with any special features.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
- 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen format
- Subtitles in English
- Dolby Digital 5.1
PRICE
Rs. 49/=
CONCLUSION
As one watches the film on DVD, there are two clear takeaways - a) Emergence of a new talented director in the form of Anand L Rai and b) Jimmy Sheirgill, who continues to make his presence felt loud and clear in each and every project of his. Truly, Strangers is his most complex role till date and he handles it with utmost maturity. An actor who deserves to go further higher up in the ladder, he is waiting to be lapped up by film makers who matter! Watch Strangers - you would be pleasantly surprised!
 
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